Day Out with Thomas!

 

Do you have this in your area? Apparently, Thomas goes around the country so kids can have a “day out” with him.  Luke’s cousins went a few years ago and we didn’t think much of it.  Clearly, we didn’t have a preschool age boy at the time.  Lesson learned. We decided to go with the Gartin family so Luke could go with his very best buddy Jake.

We met at Starbucks in the morning for chocolate milk and treats. (petite vanilla scone for Luke)  It is quite funny that Luke knows my coffee order and can recite it perfectly: “Triple grande non-fat two splenda latte.” The baristas get a kick of out it and it embarrasses Todd. 

 

“Yeah yeah Mommy, I’ll smile.”

 

“I love chocolate milk. And special treats.”

I love that boy and his blue eyes.

 

Luke was so excited to see Thomas! We got in line to take a picture with Thomas before the train departed at Roaring Camp Railroad in the Santa Cruz mountains.  It was cold and misty, but Luke was determined to wear his sleeveless Thomas shirt.  We took a family picture with Thomas, but . . . man, none of us looked very good.  We bought a copy of course. But I don’t want to post it. Bleh.

 

Our Thomas train departed at 9:30 in the morning.  I am SO glad that we went early – if Luke had been older, we would have been able to do all sorts of fun things that were offered as part of the “experience.” But he is really not into coloring or painting, though he did get a Thomas tattoo.  Since we were one of the first people there, nothing was busy and we could have enjoyed ourselves without all the crowds.

Luke and Jake

“Brothers don’t shake hands . . . brothers gotta HUG.”

Our family.  Luke was super goofy by this point, but I’ll take what I can get.

Todd and Luke enjoying the beautiful redwoods. 

By the time we got back to Roaring Camp, the place was packed. To note for the future: Be the second train that leaves.  Get there right at the beginning, enjoy all the additional activities, take your ride and then get out! It gets crazy!

So we left and had a delicious breakfast down the street. Second breakfast? I love second breakfast.  Especially when it involves two of my favorite things: biscuits. gravy. Oh, and bacon. Always bacon. But that’s a given.

A’s for Life

 

Yup, he’s my little thug.  I know, I know . . . all the cool kids like the Giants. But we’re not the cool kids, we like what we like and we love the A’s.  We’ve outfitted Luke’s room in A’s gear (please note Oakland Stadium – O.Co Park or whatever it is now) and he wears his A’s jammies faithfully.  When Todd got an A’s beanie, even though it was the dead heat of summer, Luke just had to try it on. And sport the attitude.

But just like is Daddy, he may put on the tough exterior, but really he is just a funny, sweet kid.

 

Who turned off the lights?

Sleeping

 

I love pictures of kids sleeping.  I love how they will sleep in 800 different ways and only a few actually look comfortable.  So I enjoy this picture of Luke, sleeping with his legs crossed, surrounded by a few of his “favorite things.” Obviously, Sally is there, as she is omnipresent in his life. 

And the new passion in his life . . . Spiderman.  All Spiderman, all the time.  I have learned more about Spiderman in the last few months than I have ever known or ever felt that I needed to know.

Seriously. This is a villian. A guy in a Rhino outfit.  I laugh every time I read the stories with the Rhino in it. *snort*

 

That being said, watching Spiderman cartoons has been a nice break from Thomas the Train.  Do you know what Spiderman series Luke likes to watch the most? The 1967 version that streams on Netflix. I appreciate that my son shows taste and good humor.  He has absolutely no interest in the flashy CG 1990s and after versions.  And I find the humor in the 1967, cheap animation and serious gender inequality humor.

 

So of course, that leads to the inevitable conversation: “Luke, what do you want to be for Halloween?” Is there really any question now? Luke will be one of the Spidermans at preschool. The challenge? They have to be able to go to the bathroom by themselves, even with their costumes on.  I will need to be creative to be able to make this happen.

Calm

 

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally we do have moments of calm around the house.  This was the last moment of calm, back in August.  I guess you could say it happens quarterly in the Bickel residence.

We’ve noticed that Luke’s focus has improved this year with preschool, as well as his interest in participating in these calm activities. They don’t last long (15 minutes, tops) but it is fun to see that he will color.  The artist in me keeps hoping he’ll become more interested, but the athlete in Todd seems to be winning so far.

What do I really enjoy about all of this? The father/son moments that they have together.  They’re so cute.

 

Focus, focus, focus . . .

Pie.

 

Yeah, I know it September. But I’m still going to blog about 4th of July.

Everyone’s got a “thing.” My thing is pie. I love pie. I love pie in all its glorious forms: from sweet to meat. (not together.) I love funny shirts about pie. I have a “I <3 Pie” shirt, I’m wearing a shirt that says “Easy as 3.141592 . . .” and shoot, I have a tattoo of a slice of chocolate pie on my foot.

A lot of what I connect to my mother and grandmother (2 of my all-time most favorite people) revolves around pie.  My grandmother baked the most amazing delicious pies, which she passed on to my mother. I have developed a complex of sorts . . . I don’t bake pies because I know they just won’t be the same. I baked one pie with my mom (apple), a few years ago which was pretty awesome, but I didn’t want to press my luck. But I decided I needed to get over myself and bake a pie for 4th of July.  I found a great berry pie recipe and decided to go for it.

My tools:

• Silpat
• Pie plate
• Grandma’s rolling pin
• cider for liquid confidence

 

I made a crust! Todd was impressed.

 

The pre-baked pie.  Guess what? Lattice work is TOUGH.  So I faked it, broke the strips, used a cookie cutter to make stars and cover up the breaks. Go . . . . creativity!

 

Its me! And a pie!

 

My finished pie. I forgot to adjust the recipe to add my secret ingredient: love. My pie spilleth over.

It was awesome, I really loved it.  But when you’re living in a home where everyone is watching watching what they eat, the pie actually takes a while to finish off.

Swimming

 

We spent the summer at the pool “learning” how to swim.  I use the term “swim” loosely, as Luke really just played in the water. Okay, that’s not really fair. Luke is not so apprehensive about being in the water, which is great.  Most of the time, he worked to negotiate with his teacher, trying to get out of holding his breath underwater and flipping over. *sigh*

Luke got a ribbon with his buddy Jake – hooray!

Mostly I love Luke’s “old man” swimming trunks.

True Story.

So, it's kinda my mantra when things start getting tough.

I mean, I will get my photos up one of these days. Granted, I need to find my hard drive . . . it's around here somewhere . . .

It's the second week of school and I'm already swamped! Argh!

Note: I received a 98.8% in my Tech class. I am such a "gold star" girl.